It's called The Mercury 13: The Secret Astronauts. I don't think that's actually true...Jerrie Cobb at least got several bits of news coverage out of it... at least one article in Life...
Anyway, embedding has been disabled, so you have to go to Youtube to see it.
Here's the URL to part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWySNMbGz0w
The Mercury 13 underwent the same tests as the male astronauts of the Mercury 7, but they were never really a group. They were tested individually, and it wasn't an official program, although they fought hard for their right to go into space, before President Lyndon Johnson put the kibosh on it by changing the rules so that astronaut candidates had to have jet experience. To that time, only Jackie Cochran had ever flown a jet - and that only very briefly, thanks to her good friend Chuck Yeager.
The Mercury 13
Myrtle Cagle
Jerrie Cobb
Jan Dietrich
Marion Dietrich
Wally Funk
Janey Hart
Jean Hixson
Gene Nora Stumbough
Irene Leverton
Bernice Steadman
Sarah Ratley
Jerri Truhill
Rhea Woltman
1 comment:
I noticed the initial comment said 'I don't believe it is true'.
* Irene Leverton worked for me as a multi-engine instructor when I was president of Garden City Areo, Inc in San Jose, Ca. in the late 1970's. Irene was a fantastic precise pilot, a wonderful caring person and we looked at her LIFE or LOOK magazines that told of the NASA traning story complete with all their pictures.
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